'Aide-Toi, Le Ciel T’Aidera' [-"Help yourself, and heaven will help you"]

"Don’t think that everybody is in line with ‘chaul stung tarm bawt’. People here are just lying low for the right moment to burst into a violent flame and anger. They are keeping themselves quiet because they need security and time to educate and feed their family. People in the streets are complaining about the same story daily: The lack of justice, freedom of expression, violation of human rights, illegal land grabbing, unemployment, high cost of living, and endless other complaints…"

Tim Sakmony (L) and Yorm Bopha (R)

16 Sept 2012

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

It’s useful once in a while to recall that I am not a politician and have no desire to be one. I am not here to tell people what they like to hear nor to disparage. I believe in the principles and ideals of republicanism; and I write about subjects I believe I am qualified to discuss. Readers’ actions and reactions are their own. While disagreements can provide the fodder for healthy debate, those engaging in debate should not display arrogance or intolerance. Passionate opinion can be expressed with civility.

My last article, "Khmer diplomat dubs Hun Sen a fabricator of Khmer history," appeared on the day of the late Srey Pheach’s funeral, attended by so many. It brought e-mails from Pheach’s friends and acquaintances from different places and from Phnom Penh where sits the dictator against whom Pheach fought until his last breath.

Validation

Pheach’s writing was validated by a high ranking member of the Khmer elite in Phnom Penh, whose credibility I have never doubted. I knew him when he was in the thick of the political events examined in the article. He referred to my article as "the most well written true story of Cambodia’s bloody past by the late Srey Pheach."

But he also added to the story Pheach shared. My friend wrote that Pheach did not mention the cessation of US bombings in 1973, followed by the "fast reduction of US forces from Vietnam," which hardened the "stubborn position" of the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese at the Paris conference. The war dragged on "for two more years until the total collapse of . . . Cambodia, Laos and South Vietnam"; and though Prince Sihanouk was assured by the VC/NVN they would help him return to power, they "preferred to deal with the Khmer Rouge for tactical and political reasons rather than with the . . . too independent minded" Prince Sihanouk.

A week earlier, a former US foreign service officer who had been attached to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, told me he rejected "the old leftist allegation that US bombing was responsible for causing many Cambodian peasants to join the Khmer Rouge . . . used as an excuse for the atrocities perpetrated by the KR, a sort of ‘the bombing made them do it.’" He reiterated, Cambodians joined "the fight" called by Prince Sihanouk because they thought it was to restore the monarchy, rather than to support the Khmer Rouge. "Those allegations that the bombing caused people to join the KR are not based on any clear evidence as far as I know," he wrote. "This is an idea concocted mostly by Western intellectuals who then attempted to attribute it to the Khmer peasants."

"Failure is not an option" – A story for Cambodian civil rights fighters

"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate": "Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country."

Contributors: Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth

Memories, emotions, and inspiration followed my every step as I walked through the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida last month – "a place where dreams do come true," to quote American Astronaut Robert Crippen.

This article is about how Americans have made those dreams come true for their nation. Many lives were lost in training and during space flights. The work that brought America the success in space of which the nation is justifiably proud was undertaken by men and women who worked hard, sacrificed much, took great risks, solved unimaginable technical problems. What astronauts did, and many still do, I find truly remarkable and inspirational.

I am writing this article at a time opposition Cambodian democrats have joined forces and launched their new united "Cambodian Democratic Movement for National Rescue" to "create a true 'people's movement' that caters to all sectors of Cambodian society . . . for change and capability to build a better society."

Democrats' unity is a great step forward. If history is a guide, many problems await the CDMNR, now the National Salvation Party, which must be innovative, creative, and smart. No problem is unmanageable. The future is not preordained. People make the future. The motto of the US space program is one the leaders of the CDMNR may want to post: "Failure is Not an Option!"

To the CDMNR, I dedicate this article.

I remember

I was a small kid from Russey-keo village. I rode an old bike with determination, trying to keep up with an older schoolmate from Phnom Penh riding a shiny bike. As he pedaled, he spoke knowingly of the state radio's broadcast about a Russian satellite, Sputnik, the size of a basketball, that was orbiting the Earth every 98 minutes. It was in October 1957. I was full of curiosity and imagination. I stole nights away from my father's routine nightly lecture on schooling and living to look up into the sky in search of that tiny light that moved amidst the stars.

“MEK KHMAO NGO NGIT" (Black Sky)

Dear Countrymen and Friends,

You are cordially invited to review my new PowerPoint, “MEK KHMAO NGO NGIT" (Black Sky), on human rights violations in Cambodia.

I hope you will find the slide show informative and educational.

Sincerely,

Gaffar Peang-Meth 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSkUGRp-nJI

CAMBODIA: The Emperor wears no clothes

The Samdach wears no clothes

Long Panha (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

July 16, 2012
Contributors: Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Asian Human Rights Commission

It was not in my schedule to write an article for publication today. But I sensed anticipation by some readers – and perhaps by the Phnom Penh regime itself. To Cambodians cowed by authorities, this article stands to remind that rights and justice are worth fighting for, and dictators must know it is human nature to yearn for civil rights and freedom.

Following publication of my article, "Respect Ideals and Concepts, not Arbitrary Leaders," in this space on July 1, an open letter – marked For Publication – from the Kingdom of Cambodia's Ambassador for the United Kingdom Hor Nambora arrived in my e-mail box. AHRC published the letter along with editorial comment supportive of democratic ideals. Personally, I thought it a bit odd that the Ambassador for the United Kingdom sent me the open letter, rather than Hem Heng, Ambassador to the United States, where I reside.

But the young Hor, son of Hun Sen's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, is Hun Sen's elite diplomat: A holder of a doctorate degree from Budapest; advisor to the Cambodian government with rank of Minister; and Hun Sen's special envoy to promote Cambodia's candidacy to the United Nations Security Council for 2013-2014.

Claiming "it difficult to take seriously someone" like me who "snaps rudely from the sidelines," he wrote painstakingly, "One can only hope that you stop writing such virulent criticisms of the democratically-elected government of Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen and those organisations such as the Asian Human Rights Commission will stop pandering to you."

The open letter is an indication that my decades-long advocacy for open, fair and free elections in Cambodia, described in my essays published here and elsewhere, has irritated some officials of the Cambodian dictatorship. The bombastic rhetoric of Ambassador Hor is consistent with the present elite's authoritarian strand, the a'tma anh (the I-ism) that demands complete obedience, as did Pol Pot's Angkar-on-High. Yet, Cambodia endorsed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and integrated its principles into her Constitution.

Sronors Srok Khmer - ស្រណោះស្រុកខ្មែរ

Dear Countrymen and Friends,

Attached please find the link to a new YouTube slide presentation, Sronors Srok Khmer (Nostalgia for the Khmer country) that I completed recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBoti-OYKMY

I hope you enjoy the song Tropaeng Peay. The photos speak for themselves.

Sincerely,













Gaffar Peang-Meth

Dr Gaffar Peang-Meth hits Hun Xen's regime where it hurts the most: The dog unleashes its howling pain

An Open Letter to Dr Gaffar Peang Meth

02 July 2012

Dr Gaffar Peang-Meth
C/o Asian Human Rights Commission
Unit 701A, Westley Square
48 Hoi Yuen Road
Kwun Tong, KLN
Hong Kong, China

Dear Dr Peang-Meth,

I am responding to your article, Cambodia: Respect ideals and concepts, published by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

I cannot imagine why a normally-respected body such as the AHRC should have chosen to publish your rambling, pretentious, largely irrelevant and clearly politically-motivated article.

I also find it difficult to take seriously someone like yourself who once had such strong associations with Cambodia and yet has chosen not to engage himself in the country's democratic process but to snap rudely from the sidelines, from a position of comfortable exile in the United States.

It is rather ironic that you should choose to quote the words of the Lord Buddha saying: "Do not depend on others. No-one saves us but ourselves. We ourselves must walk the path." This from somebody who deserted his countrymen long ago; first to lecture at the University of Guam and now posing as a serious political analyst producing attention-seeking articles for those misguided enough to want to publish them.

The AHRC has also done itself no credit; publishing your latest article and yet at the same time cravenly protesting that it does not necessarily share your views. In which case, one has to ask: why has it provided you with a high-profile platform and the attendant publicity? The AHRC is not a magazine or newspaper seeking to present its public with the widest possible cross-section of views. It is a regional non-governmental organisation with its own very narrow perspective and agenda - which your views seem to admirably compliment.

One can only hope that you will stop writing such virulent criticisms of the democratically-elected government of Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen and those organisations such as the Asian Human Rights Commission will stop pandering to you.

In the interests of balance I will be asking the AHRC to post this letter within the "Views & Opinions" section of its website.

Yours sincerely,

Hor Nam Bora

Ambassador of Cambodia

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Hye-Hor 5 Bora

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

A Letter from Cambodian Ambassador for UK

July 3, 2012

Below is a letter written by Cambidian Ambassador for United Kingdom regarding an article written by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). It is one of many articles that he has written in recent year. We publish it with a note from AHRC.

A note from the AHRC

It is the right of every person to express their views on matters that they believe to be important. The AHRC publishes opinion editorials of numerous journalists, diplomats and human rights defenders from countries across Asia so as to promote free discussion. We are committed to encouraging the free exchange of ideas and opinions in the belief that democracy and human rights will survive only if there is freedom of expression, including freedom of media organizations. The AHRC maintains that topics should be matters of public interest, and views should be expressed in a polite manner.

The views expressed by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth in his article entitled, ‘Respect Ideals and Concepts, not Arbitrary Leaders', is undoubtedly a matter of public interest. Numerous journalists, diplomats and human rights defenders have expressed similar concerns that the current situation in Cambodia is not reflective of the ideal enshrined in Cambodia’s Constitution and the promise made to the Cambodian people; that of a functional liberal democracy. This promise was written after a long period of tragedy in Cambodia. However, it is widely agreed that a functioning liberal democracy is still a distant dream for the Cambodian people.

The lack of judicial independence and threats to freedom of expression are two of the many problems in Cambodia that have been identified by numerous authoritative political and media sources. The AHRC is aware of these issues, and works to promote respect for human rights and legal reform in Cambodia through the publication and dissemination of statements and appeals. For example, the recent episode relating 13 women who were arrested and sentenced relating to demonstrations in Boeung Kak lake area. [link: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-112-2012].

The free expression of views by all people is the primary way that a democracy can begin to confront and resolve problems. We hope that more people will peacefully discuss the issues that face their countries, so as to encourage a vigorous democratic discourse on the issues in Cambodia, as well as the issues facing other countries in the Asian region.

Ambassador’s letter:

Dear Sir/Madam

In response to the publication of your article by Dr Gaffar Peang-Meth entitled: Cambodia: Respect ideals and concepts, I have sent Dr Peang-Meth the following response.

In the interests of balance I should be grateful if you will post this letter within the “Views & Opinions” section of your website.

Yours faithfully

 

Hor Nambora

Letter to Dr Gaffar Peang-Meth:

Dear Dr Peang-Meth;

I am responding to your article, Cambodia: Respect ideals and concepts, published by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

CAMBODIA: Respect ideals and concepts, not arbitrary leaders

Those who are proactive swim against the social norm.

A creative mind should start immediately to de-personalize the centuries-old culture of korup (respect), kaowd klach (admire and fear), smoh trang (loyalty/fidelity), bamroeur (serve), kapier (defend), directed toward individual leaders, and to reorient them toward ideals and concepts such as cheat (nation), pracheathipattei (democracy), sereipheap (freedom), sithi (rights).

 July 1, 2012

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

The West and the East historically have differed in their traditional perspectives on how best to order society. The fundamental Western philosophy prioritizes the inviolability of individual freedom and rights; essential Eastern values favor societal stability and security above all. Over time, there has evolved a degree of rapprochement: Westerners acknowledge Easterners' philosophy that freedom and human rights can't exist in a chaotic and turbulent world; Easterners see freedom and human rights as inherent in human nature.

A popular quote by Harvard University professor of government James Q. Wilson reads, "Without Liberty, Law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without Law, Liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness."

Tibet's spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, said, "We must, therefore, insist on a global consensus, not only on the need to respect human rights worldwide, but also on the definition of these rights . . . for it is the inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity, and they have an equal right to achieve that."

These contemporary remarks reflect the ancient Buddha's teaching of the Middle Path.

Cambodians in conflict

The basic East-West philosophical difference is mirrored in the conflicts between the stability-security proponents who largely support the Hun Sen regime and the freedom-human rights advocates who generally oppose the regime.

By their culture, Cambodians are generally passive, conforming, and accommodating. Those who are proactive swim against the social norm. Thveu doch ke doch aeng, the Khmers say, meaning, do like others do, a conformist ethos that discourages those who step outside the lines.

Democrats must become a credible alternative to stop Hun Sen and the CPP

[Cambodian Democrats] have to be better. No Cambodian and no foreigner will take the risk to support a contender whom they see as no different from the incumbent. As they say . . . better the devil you know.

June 15, 2012

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party's victories in local elections were pre-ordained.

Hun Sen rode to power under the guns of some 200,000 Vietnamese troops who crossed the border with Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1978, captured Phnom Penh in January 1979, and stayed in Cambodia as occupiers until 1989. They installed Hun Sen as premier in 1985.

A former Khmer Rouge defector to Vietnam, Hun Sen lost the 1993-United Nations organized elections, and used threats to win the post of second-premier. In 1997, he launched a coup d'etat against the first-premier. For 27 years, since 1985, premier Hun Sen has controlled Cambodia's administrative apparatus, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. He has become a dictator.

The "pagoda boy," as he called himself -- in reference to his childhood -- learned fast. Now 59, he says he wants to stay in power for life. He promises an open investment environment to the world's thirsty investors – 99 years leases on land concessions and availability of natural resources -- backed by political stability. He plays well on the world's appetite for democracy and elections. He allows just enough free expression as he carefully controls media outlets and public demonstrations sufficient to air some grievances. He's quick to tell potential transgressors he will "close the door and beat the dogs." He encourages elections, but ensures his opponents don't win. He and his party intimidate and bribe hungry citizens for votes.

The country has experienced economic growth for the last decade; investors and tourists remark upon Cambodia's skyscrapers, world class gambling casinos, and shopping malls. The regime siphons some $500 million of development aid yearly. Land grabbing and forced evictions allow Hun Sen and his cronies to get rich as they sell the co-opted property to investors, keeping a portion of the profit. One third of Cambodians live on 61 cents a day. Poverty has increased, particularly in rural areas. Corruption is rampant. Violations of rights are routine.

We should heed Roosevelt's advice -- "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" not later, now!

https://www.box.com/s/850ec57c2c9499e1b34e

Boun's description of the Khmer propensity toward destroying an adversary is vivid: In civilized countries political competition is a sport -- the winner and loser move on -- but in the Khmer culture, "though an adversary is knocked down in a fight, the one with advantage does not stop but rushes to kick the downed adversary until the latter loses consciousness or even dies. This is no sport. Winning means the adversary must fall unconscious or die; it's not winning if the adversary is still breathing. This is Charet Khmer (Khmer more or Khmer trait)."

June 1, 2012

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

Driving through America's southern countryside of green fields and wild flowers, a flurry of thoughts overwhelm me as the words of a song reach my ears: "The banker man grows fatter, the working man grows thin; It's all happened before and it'll happen again; It'll happen again, they'll bet your life; I'm a Jack of all trades and, darling, we'll be alright…"

That's my 12-year-old grandson's favorite song from a new Bruce Springsteen CD. "So you use what you've got, and learn to make do," the song goes, "You take the old, you make it new."

The words remind me, oddly, of America's youngest president (1901-1909), Theodore Roosevelt, who said, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." They are words about creativity: To imagine something that never exists and create it.

Martin Luther King, Jr., sees as a function of education, "to teach one to think intensively and to think critically."

There are two inseparable processes of excellence of thought: Creativity -- to produce something out of nothing; and criticality -- to evaluate whether what's produced leads one closer to a goal. This is quality thinking -- which determines the future of anything we do and the quality of our future.

The following morning, my grandson, his digital video camera running, interviewed me for his school project. One of his questions: Why do Cambodian opposition parties fight among themselves and why do members of the same party also fight among themselves? Oh, boy…

Universities must teach how to think

May 26, 2012
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

It is no small accomplishment that the Territorial College of Guam -- since 1968 the University of Guam -- is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year as an American institution of higher learning. As Scottish novelist Robert L. Stevenson once wrote, "Everyone who got where he is, had to begin where he was." Guam invested in the Territorial College to bring the University of Guam to this significant moment.

Nearly 40 years after the founding of that proud Territorial College, I joined the University of Guam as a "raw recruit." Arriving on Guam in 1991 after a stint as a visiting associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, I was quite new to teaching. Most of my professional career had been spent in service to the Khmer People's National Liberation Front, a nationalist resistance movement at the Khmer-Thai border, fighting Vietnam's 1979-1989 military occupation of my birthplace, Cambodia.

I knew little of Guam, but was fascinated with Hollywood's depictions of island life and ever attached to the tropics when I applied for a three-year assistant professor position in political science at UOG.

Ironically, it was current UOG President Robert Underwood, who was academic vice president in 1991, who introduced me to the UOG community. But he soon left the university to serve as Guam's delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Guam became my academic home for the next 13 years. And as Underwood returned to Guam in 2003, eventually to assume the university presidency, I was arranging for my own retirement in June 2004, having come to love the island.

Prime Minister Hun Sen is not blind to see what goes on around him

May 15, 2012

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

Oppression, a powerful weapon of the oppressor, is also a weapon that brings down the autocrats who practice it.

We may never know what really happened when Cambodia's eminent environmental activist Chut Wutty (46), father of three, head of the Natural Resource Protection Group, a Cambodian non-governmental organization fighting Cambodia's deforestation, was shot and killed on April 26 at Veal Bei point in Mondul Seima district, in Koh Kong province.

On a trip by car from Pursat to Koh Kong with two journalists from The Cambodia Daily, Khmer Phorn Bopha and Canadian Olesia Plokhii, both 27, who were doing a story on grassroots efforts to prevent illegal logging, Wutty decided to stop at Veal Bei point, a heavily forested area notoriously known for illegal logging, near where a hydropower dam which is among four in Koh Kong and is being built at Stung Russey Chrum Krom by the China Huadian Corporation (CHC).

Wutty who devoted himself to protecting Cambodia's forests, was determined to investigate "forest crime" by a Chinese-owned company named Timbergreen, licensed by Cambodia's Economic Land Concession (ELC) to clear the Lower Russey Chrum reservoirs.

The ELC is a long-term lease (maximum of 99 years) that permits the beneficiary to clear land for industrial-agricultural activities. Cambodia has granted land concessions for various purposes since the 1990s; the 2001 Land Law formalized the legal framework for land concessions for economic purposes.

CAMBODIA: Opposition leader Mu Sochua -- "It's morally wrong to stay complicit" with an oppressor

May 1, 2012

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

I wrote in my last article in this space of the accumulating circumstances that compel a change in the current leadership of Cambodia. In Cambodia, the rich are getting richer while one-third of the population lives on less than US$0.61 per day. Many survive on what they scavenge from garbage dumps only blocks from the lavish homes of the wealthy. Those who live in rural areas, too, are losing economic ground, and most are impoverished.

Considering Cambodia's estimated annual population growth rate of 1.7 percent (compared with France, 0.5 percent or England, 0.2 percent) and the slow increase of Cambodia's GDP per capita, it would seem that Cambodians will continue to struggle against a tide of poverty for the foreseeable future.

Odom, an unemployed university graduate in Cambodia, armed with World Bank statistics on Gross National Income per capita between 2007 and 2010, reminds me that Cambodia remains the poorest country among its neighbors: a Lao is on average richer than a Cambodian by a ratio of 1.24 to 1, a Malay, 10.51 to 1, and a Singaporean, 53.03 to 1; in 2010, a Thai had an income 1.4 time higher than the incomes of a Vietnamese, a Lao and a Cambodian combined.

Martin Hutchinson's "Cambodia must solve two big problems for takeoff" (Reuters) asserts that "Feeding, educating and housing ever more Cambodians will be a challenge," but zeroes in on "Corruption as the real enemy" and cites Transparency International's Corruption Index ranking of Cambodia as among "the worst global slums."

Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC), a founder of Western civilization, warns in Politics, "The passion for equality is at the root of revolution." An established general theory links inequality and violent rebellion. Students of conflict argue that economic inequality is a major cause of dissent, and that poverty and deprivation lead the disadvantaged person to revolt.

CAMBODIA: Khmer Buddhist New Year 2556 is time for Cambodians to spark effective change

Thus, as the Khmer New Year brings each a new soul, I pray Cambodians heighten their Buddhist consciousness and practice of their Lord's teachings in order to change old thoughts and old habits and unleash nonviolent action against oppression.

April 15, 2012
An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

Talking about the need for political change in Cambodia gets "old." I write aplenty in this space and elsewhere on the topic, yet Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party persists and keeps piling on more reasons why change must occur.

It's obvious a lot has changed in Cambodia, especially the mirage of development and progress seen in images of bustling metropolitan cities with high rises, latest model cars, crowded markets and restaurants, camera-toting tourists. Cambodia is a paradise for foreign investors who compete for her markets and resources. This influx of capital accelerates change, but these are the sort of changes that should be taken only after deliberation and consideration of their potential impact. This broad-based review does not occur in Cambodia today.

The more things change

An oft-quoted proverb of French origin by novelist Alphonse Karr (1808-90), later quoted by George Bernard Shaw and others, says, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose," or "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Is this paradoxical?

I admit to being chagrined at reading a commentary by an editor of the Bangkok Post who in "Poor Cambodia not looking so 'poor' anymore," (April 6) noted ironically that "billions of dollars in aid money" help make Phnom Penh visibly "clean" and "spotless" a la Singapore, "at least in those areas where (foreign) delegates (to the ASEAN conference) were either visiting or staying," with "perhaps … the highest number of Lexus vehicles per capita" and "only three beggars" observed. "I personally don't believe that the funding (from aid donors) ever reaches those Cambodians in real need in any case," the editor writes, among other things.

Widespread concern among observers about the worrisome widening gap between those is confirmed by a longtime friend, a non-Cambodian professional with decades-long experience working with peoples in developing countries, who shared World Bank data that show the dramatic rise in economic inequality.

Statistically, poverty in Cambodia has been reduced between 1993 and 2007, but one-third of the near 15 million Cambodians still live below the national poverty line of 2,473 riel per day, or US$0.61; the Gini Coefficient moved up from 0.35 in 1994 to 0.40 in 2004 and 0.43 in 2007 (0 being perfect equality and 1 being absolute inequality); within the rural areas where some 80 percent of the people live, rural inequality rose from 0.27 in 1994 to 0.33 in 2004 and climbed again to 0.36 in 2007.

AN “OPEN LETTER” LEAVES UNSAID THAT CAMBODIA IS “A COUNTRY FOR SALE”

By Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth 

(for CambodiaWatch-Australia)

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s regime has got a superficial boost from a recent “Open Letter” written by a member of Australia’s Democratic Socialist Perspective. The letter brought a wave of negative reactions from regime opponents, whose attention was diverted momentarily from their usual focus on the regime’s violations of civil rights and the rule of law.

The Open Letter (to self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy) was relayed to me by email from a high ranking member of a Cambodian royalist faction in Phnom Penh who wrote: “The government has the means to hire and employ little known western ‘reporters’ to write articles in favor of them. There are many people like this for sale in our country…” A string of communications from Cambodian expatriates expressed indignation against the letter’s author. I commented to a Cambodian elder with long experiences in Cambodia’s affairs since the 1950s that Cambodians should not be pulled away from their focus on civil rights by this distraction engineered by the prime minister.

The letter describes a “vibrant press” in Cambodia and the regime in power as representative of the “expressed will of the majority” of voters in the elections of July 27, 2008, though the Election Observation Mission of the European Union, which had a mandate to “conduct a comprehensive assessment of the electoral process in accordance with international principles for genuine democratic elections,” reported the 2008 elections “fell short of a number of key international standards for democratic elections.” “[T]here was a lack of confidence in the impartiality of the election administration among election stakeholders. The campaign was marked by consistent and widespread use of state resources by the governing party and the distribution of money and gifts by candidates and party officials was widely reported,” the EU-EOM’s Final Report said.

Human Rights Watch reported the 2008 elections were “marred by the [Cambodian People Party]’s near monopoly over the media, bias within the electoral apparatus, and coerced defections of opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) members to the CPP [through] [l]ucrative offers of high-paying government positions and threats of reprisals…” Et cetera.

“Cambodia continued to drift toward authoritarianism in 2008 as Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) consolidated power through flawed elections in July [2008]. The elections were criticized by the European Union and the United Nations special representative for human rights in Cambodia for failing to meet international standards,” says HRW.

The government of Prime Minister Hun Sen rejects the EU-EOM report and the HRW report – among others – as “simply untrue.”

CAMBODIA: A survival recipe -- attitude change, practice Buddha's teaching, engage in nonviolent action

This brings me to a recipe for Cambodians' survival: Cambodians need a change in attitude first and foremost, including a reexamination of Lord Buddha's teachings to make a new Cambodia. When enough Cambodians understand and follow Buddha's true path, a new society can be developed; successful dealings with expansionist neighbors to the East and aggressive neighbors to the West can be initiated; and the generalized fear of Cambodia's extinction may be assuaged.

15 March 2012
Source: http://www.humanrights.asia/opinions/columns/AHRC-ETC-009-2012

My article last month in this space brought comforting and kind words in e-mails from some Cambodian and non-Cambodian readers, to whom I am grateful. It's they who encourage me to have hope in Cambodians' abilities to find ways to effect change.

I continue to receive requests from readers in Cambodia to provide translations from English of my articles for "Lok Ta, Lok.Yeay, Pou, Mign" (the elders) to read. I was touched by taxi-driver Svang Huy, a graduate with a bachelor's degree in English literature, who asked permission to translate into Khmer my articles compiled in Loyola Marymount University Professor Sovathana Sokhom's book (2011), What is Your Ten Minutes Worth? I am heartened at the interest expressed by those who clearly want to learn. I encouraged Svang Huy not to get hung up with specific words translation, but to adapt my ideas into Khmer. If he does this, I have promised to go over his finished product one article at a time.

Arguments and counterarguments

Proponents of the "filled stomach" and "stability" perspectives supported by Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian Peoples' Party which asserts that positive change will come only after the people are contented with "full stomachs" and a cessation of significant political dissent and provide data and photographs in support of their position. Similarly, regime opponents highlight areas that sorely need reform and improvement.

A "Cambodia observer" writes, "We must give peace and stability in Cambodia a chance, while helping to develop Cambodia in the 'appropriate' and ‘equitable' direction." A Cambodian elder scoffs: The current leadership has been in control "virtually solo" for 33 years, a period during which forced evictions, land-grabbing, deforestation, the sale of the country's natural wealth, among others degradations, have steadily increased; fear and intimidation are used to keep people cowed.

Taboo thesis topics

Of interest, Cambodians from around the world are engaged in an Internet discussion of a little publicized story from Cambodia's Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), which issued to its fourth year students a list of research topics that are prohibited. The list includes, among other topics, "drug problem in society," "the organization and the working of the Cambodian Red Cross," "the goal and the legal resolution of land dispute resolutions in Cambodia," "the resolution of land disputes by the authority in Cambodia." Oh, dear.

Discussions on the Cambodian Red Cross led by Bun Rany Hun Xen is a taboo

An employer wrote: "I used to interview many university graduates and I have rarely [been] satisfied with their skills and knowledge. I would say most of them are uncooked [sic] and equipped with poor quality. All in all, my top question is: How can Cambodia compete with others when ASEAN is integrated in 2015? Do we take pride of cheap labor cost compared to other members of ASEAN?"

(Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Earlier this month, the Phnom Penh Post's "A tough place to call home" reported about a family from Prey Veng province living in Phnom Penh's cement pipes, circumstances they have called home for the past two years as they dream of "a better life." A Western visitor to Cambodia writes: "If you wander around the streets and parks of Phnom Penh, you will run into refugees from the stagnant and impoverished countryside like this all over the place. Apparently most of them feel that living in pipes, or even on the street, is better than returning to the hopeless situation that they left in Prey Veng, or wherever they came from."

The visitor spoke to a family at the base of Wat Phnom with belongings beside them still wrapped in a blanket: "They seemed to have no idea what they were going to do in Phnom Penh but hope that life in the city would be better than where they came from. It is a sad situation."

Skyscrapers as development

Images of bustling Cambodian metropolitan cities, adorned with high rises and skyscrapers, latest model vehicles, crowded markets and restaurants, and camera-toting tourists, are equated with progress and development.

Canadia Bank Tower (Photo: Flickr)

Last February 9, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen told the nation that the construction of high rises and skyscrapers should not occur only in Phnom Penh, but all over the country. Again, oh dear!

Inauguration of the Dreamland amusement park by Hun Manet, Hun Xen's son and possibly his heir

A young girl who will never set feet at the Dreamland amusement park.

Seek to effect positive changes

"In Cambodia, ... They fight over how much to take from the poor."

Feb. 22, 2012
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

This column is the last of my bi-weekly postings to the Pacific Daily News. I am moving on to another project. I thank the PDN for having provided me with the opportunity to offer my thoughts in this space since 1999. Those who read my columns have said they always learn something. I consider that the highest praise and will look forward to occasional submissions to the PDN in the future that will elicit, I hope, that same reaction.

To the people of Guam, I thank you for sticking with me as my writing in the last year or so has focused increasingly on Cambodia, the country of my birth. I appreciate what a reader from Guam wrote not long ago, that my writing on Cambodia also provides lessons for others, particularly those who reside in developing nation-states. That's what comparative studies are about.

Last week, my 12-year-old grandson -- the seventh-grader who read "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror" and told me I might benefit from reading it -- showed me a slide show he made on events in the United States and in Cambodia. I was impressed by the young boy's comparative analysis skills.

On a photo showing "Occupy" protesters in America claiming, "We are 99%. We will no longer remain silent," my grandson writes, "In America, ... people complain about their problems, and woes." On the next photo showing a Cambodian riot police officer kicking a yellow-robed Buddhist monk whose legs were off the ground and whose robe was flying in the air, my grandson writes, "In Cambodia, ... they try." Photos of police tackling protesters follow.

CAMBODIA: "O Khmer euy Khmer, chous ach knong srae" - ឱខ្មែរអើយខ្មែរ! ជុះអាចម៏ក្នុងស្រែ

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

Something is changing within the Khmer nation.

Those storied Khmer characteristics – the broad smile; the gentle, peaceful compassionate nature – and the centuries-old traditions of "korup, bamreur, karpier, smoh trang" -- "respect, serve, defend, be loyal (to leaders)" -- passed down through generations seem to be taking a new course.

Protesters spell the word "Aphivath" or "Development" with their shoes (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

A photo floating on the Internet shows Khmer villagers--from youth to middle age--standing barefoot under the hot sun as their colorful sandals are arranged in an empty lot nearby to make up the Khmer word "Aphivath," or "Development." Their symbolic protest is directed at Khmer leaders and at those around the world who are sympathetic to the disenfranchisement of the poor in contemporary Cambodia.

Photos and videos of government abuse of citizens' rights and of citizens' responses have inundated the Internet. Some postings inform and educate. I recommend recent postings on the Website of Radio Free Asia (February 1, "More Arrests Follow Land Clash").

The beatings of women and children by riot police are routine -- and are routinely condemned by international and national rights groups. The too common sight of Khmer women with clothes torn or ripped off by police during peaceful protests is now replaced by the sight of women protesters taking off their clothes to highlight their protests as they face the police.

Cops ripping off shirt from a Boeung Kak Lake protester

A protester removes her clothing during a protest in Phnom Penh, Feb. 1, 2012. (RFA)

Going one step further, RFA posted on its website a photograph of a half-naked Khmer woman protester facing police in full riot gear. Her action was intended to highlight the plight of Cambodian villagers from the Borei Keila community, who were evicted by armed police from their homes, which were dismantled and the co-opted land given to Phan Imex Company for commercial development.

Khmer women taking off their clothes in public to protest against authority is a new phenomenon. But, it shows something else too: Submission to injustice has a limit, and "fear," a conditioned behavior, is being overcome.

'Action comes out of thought'

"The intellectual should constantly disturb, should bear witness to the misery of the world, should be provocative by being independent, should rebel against all hidden and open pressures and manipulations, should be the chief doubter of systems ... and for this reason, an intellectual cannot fit into any role that might be assigned to him ... and essentially doesn't belong anywhere: he stands out as an irritant wherever he is." - Aung San Suu Kyi

Feb. 8, 2012
A Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

We are 39 days into this New Year of 2012. English writer Gilbert Chesterton said, "The object of the new year, ... is that we should have a new soul" -- a new beginning.

For the nearly 5 million Cambodians who live below the nation's poverty level, and the nearly half a million who have been forcibly evicted from their homes, a new beginning cannot come soon enough.

Human beings are creatures of habit. We think and act as we have always done. In time, our habits become fossilized and we are on auto-pilot. I am reminded of the saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got," and of Albert Einstein's oft-quoted definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

The quality of anything we do, and our future, are determined as much by how we think as by what we know. Individuals can store countless data in their heads, but how each person integrates that information -- the quality of one's thinking -- varies greatly from person to person. Still, the skill of engaging in quality thinking can be taught, can be learned.

Ingrained in quality thinking are: Creativity (assimilating and reframing information to develop concepts and patterns, goals and objectives) and criticality (assessing and evaluating how creative thought has, or hasn't, led to achievement of a goal).